ALBANY — Operating budgets for fiscal 2015-16 and 2016-17 were approved by the City Council June 15. The 2015-16 budget expenditures are $23.1 million. The 2016-17 budget expenditures are just under $24 million.

A general fund surplus of $24,807 is projected for the first year. A deficit of $395,659 is projected for the second year. A budget stabilization reserve account of $600,000 has been created as a temporary measure to help smooth over the difference.

About half of the city’s spending is on police and fire.

The council received a report from Finance Advisor Paul Rankin detailing the budget, which is conducted on a two-year cycle. The council also discussed the city’s capital improvement program and staffing issues.

The budget was approved unanimously.

The council also considered whether to sunset the Social and Economic Justice Commission, finally deciding to continue the commission for one more year while giving it a charge to study a soda tax for future consideration. The commission has been on the chopping block before and there are questions about whether it is a drain on city resources. It has also been difficult to find people to apply for membership on the panel.

The decision to have it review a possible soda tax was a way of keeping the commission going.

Councilwoman Rochelle Nason said, “You’d have a lot more people interested if you’re going out and saying, ‘There’s this committee, it’s going to look at a municipal soda tax. I’d like to encourage you to get involved.’ I think you’d get people who would say, ‘Yeah, I’d like to get involved.'”

The council voted 3-2 to continue the commission with Michael Barnes and Peggy McQuaid opposed. The SEJC will consider possible soda tax plans and how to proceed. No time frame was established.

The SEJC has existed since 2005. It was created to consider social and environmental issues important to the welfare of residents of Albany. A Sustainability Committee was created in 2007 that absolved the SEJC of environmental considerations. Since then, the council has revised the purpose of the SEJC multiple times.

The commission considered affordable housing issues in the past year. But the city’s Community Development Department and Diverse Housing Working Group also works on those issues. The commission also considered minimum and living wage issues.

A city staff report said the addition of a Human Services Department meant that the SEJC as currently defined no longer addresses the city’s needs. The report suggested continuing as is, transitioning the commission to a “Human Services Committee” or sunsetting the SEJC and allowing for ad hoc groups as needed.

The council also considered sunsetting the commission in 2012 before relenting.

Violent police encounters in California last year led to the deaths of 157 people and six officers, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday in a report that provides the first statewide tally on police use-of-force incidents.